Orville Peck’s actual identity remains a mystery thanks to his Lone Ranger-style fringed mask, but the singer’s debut album Pony earned him accolades and recognition as a queer voice in country music. The singer has been gearing up for the EP Show Pony with his recent singles “Summertime” and “No Glory In The West.” But Peck has decided to pause his EP’s promotion in order to focus on supporting the Black Lives Matter movement. Just two days before the EP was supposed to drop, Peck announced he is pushing it back a month.
Addressing his fans on social media, Peck wrote that he wants to shift his priorities away from his EP to support Black Lives Matter. The singer wrote that the momentum of the movement is “so strong,” but people need to stay committed in order to “dismantle the injustices of oppression”:
“Hey gang, I know it’s only two days away but I’ve decided to push the release of my new EP ‘Show Pony’ to July. We’re undergoing a huge overdue worldwide transformation thanks to the Black Lives Matter movement and that is mainly what I want to put my focus on at the moment. The momentum is currently so strong, and it needs to keep going in order to dismantle the injustices of oppression, so if your voice hasn’t been heard yet just use it, or walk out and hear the protesters, and if you’re scared, tell them Orville sent you! Last week, thanks to the help of some lovely people we raised close to $37k, and this week I’ll be performing a little surprise from the EP at @wynwoodpride where we’re hoping to raise $100k. Lots of great performers, so if you guys like what you see, remember to tip- and y’all, even if you can’t tip, watching to actively educate yourself is also a win for everyone.”
Find Peck’s post above.
Show Pony is out 7/12 via Sub Pop. Pre-order it here.
Since the first rumors about a possible bubble league for the NBA cropped up, one of the chief concerns among those involved has been what to do with older personnel — especially coaches — who are at a higher risk for serious complications should they contract COVID-19. That has seemingly not yet been addressed, with Adam Silver walking back a statement he made on TNT about not having coaches over 65 in the bubble, and the ongoing friction between the league and its coaches continued Wednesday with the news that the NBA league office will ask teams to submit personal health records for everyone coming to Orlando in order to determine risk on a case-by-case basis.
According to a report from Zach Lowe and Adrian Wojnarowski at ESPN, “NBA team personnel are expected to be asked to submit personal medical histories to a panel of physicians who would review their individual risk of serious illness due to any spread of coronavirus in the NBA’s bubble environment in Orlando.”
However, many labor and health-related issues crop up when an employer begins to ask employees for personal health history, even during the time of COVID-19. Rick Carlisle, one of the head coaches who will head to Orlando next month to coach the Mavericks, is also the president of the coaches’ association. He’s recently had to fight to protect some of the older coaches in the NBA while also ensuring their labor freedoms are not infringed upon by the league.
While an optimistic perspective would indicate both Carlisle and NBA coaches, as well as the league office, are all fighting to protect coaches, it’s a slipper slope toward health-based discrimination. A cursory understanding of HIPAA guidelines calls into question the legality of the NBA asking for such information and providing it to a third-party panel, though many such rules have changed during this pandemic. Even the best intentions, though, can lead to problems between employers and their workers, even within high-profile sports leagues.
Per ESPN: “Forcibly excluding such personnel could implicate both the Age Discrimination in Employment Act and (perhaps more important) the Americans with Disabilities Act, experts said.”
Simply put, the league has to balance not violating labor or health law while also figuring out how bets to ensure the health and safety of older head coaches such as Gregg Popovich, Mike D’Antoni or Alvin Gentry, all of whom fall into the primary risk category according to the CDC. If any of them have pre-existing health conditions, their risk only worsens.
This is one of the things you might have hoped would be sorted out prior to the league and players voting to resume play, but at least it appears both sides are working to find a tenable solution.
After delivering a gripping teaser in early May, HBO is back with an official trailer for its upcoming docu-series I’ll Be Gone In The Dark, which is based on the Michelle McNamara book of the same name.
As fans of true crime and comedian Patton Oswalt know, McNamara died tragically in her sleep in 2016 before finishing her book that focused on solving the infamous cold case of the Golden State Killer. In honor of his late wife’s dedication to the case, Oswalt worked with a team of investigators to finish I’ll Be Gone In The Dark. Two months after it hit shelves, the killer was arrested after decades of eluding law enforcement.
In the upcoming docu-series, not only will McNamara’s extensive research into the Golden State Killer be front and center, but also the crime writer’s intense dedication to telling the victims stories. With interviews from Oswalt, friends, and co-investigators, I’ll Be Gone In The Dark will go beyond the book and also tell the story of McNamara’s fierce determination that led to the capture of a killer.
Here’s the official synopsis from HBO:
I’LL BE GONE IN THE DARK is a detective story told in McNamara’s own words, through exclusive original recordings and excerpts from her book read by actor Amy Ryan. The series draws from extensive archival footage and police files as well as exclusive new interviews with detectives, survivors and family members of the killer to weave together a picture of a complex and flawed investigation. It is a frightening document of an era when victims were often too ashamed to speak out and sexual crime was minimized in the press and the courtroom. Echoing McNamara’s writing, the series gives voice to the victims, and their experiences speak to the far-reaching, human cost of the decades-old case.
I’ll Be Gone In The Dark will debut on HBO on June 28.
With industries still adapting to the coronavirus, many TV shows have halted production. Thankfully, fans of Jeopardy! are still able to see some fresh content as the show has been pulling from a catalog of previously filmed episodes. While the backlog is slowly dwindling, music lovers were in for a treat with Monday night’s episode. St. Vincent, the moniker of musician Annie Clark, was a question in one of the categories.
St. Vincent’s question fell under the category “Island People,” a play on words as her stage name is also an island in the Caribbean. Reading out the answer, host Alex Trebek said: “Annie Clark is the original name of this Grammy-winning singer.” Contestant Lindsay Madejski was quick to respond with, “Who is Annie Clark?” and earned an impressive $1,600.
Sharing the clip to social media, Clark expressed her excitement with an excess of punctuation, writing: “Brief pause in MFBL posts for this — ?!!?!!!???!!!?!!!??!”
This is far from the first time Jeopardy! used a popular musician as an answer on its show. Lil Wayne was recently a response to an answer about his ColleGrove collaboration with 2 Chainz. In the same episode, Alex Trebek gave a hilarious impersonation of Lil Jon’s catchphrase “yeeeeeeeahh.” More recently, Lady Gaga’s A Star Is Born track “Shallow” stumped contestants on a round of Final Jeopardy. The clue read: “In October 2019 this song, a duet, was still in the top 10 on Billboard’s Adult Contemporary Chart after spending a year on the chart.” But only one contestant was able to give the correct question.
Watch the Jeopardy! clip above.
You read it right — everything from dresses to tops to accessories — Francesca’s is your summer shopping oyster.
Last night’s episode of WWE Backstage was an Evolution watch-along, with the women of WWE weighing in on the historic 2018 pay-per-view in a group video call. Towards the end of the program, the commentators said that they would love to see a second Evolution, and talked about their dream matches for the event.
Paige, while praising the new faces in NXT, said she “would love to see Nattie do more” and that she doesn’t know why Tamina isn’t being used right now. The possibility of Renee Young having a match was brought up, with Maria Menounos telling the Backstage host, “There might be nothing more fun ever in your life to do, Renee, trust me. It’s literally the highlight of my entire life.” Everyone also reacted positively to the idea of Stephanie McMahon getting back in the ring.
Ruby Riott, Bianca Belair, and Nikki Cross discussed who their own dream opponents for an Evolution event would be. Riott started with the new NXT Women’s Champion, saying, “I’m a huge Io Shirai fan, so I want so bad to work with her.” She also mentioned “a lot of the women from NXT who I haven’t gotten a chance to [work with] or who I’ve mixed it up with on the indies that I would love to do on a bigger scale,” naming Candice LeRae, Dakota Kai, Tegan Nox, and Shayna Baszler.
Belair said she thought “a good matchup, storytelling-wise” for her would be “either Charlotte or Shayna just because I have history with them.” From a purely in-ring perspective Belair brought up, “Raquel [Gonzalez] or Nia Jax or Beth Phoenix because it would be strength vs. strength, so I think we could create some magic in the ring with that lineup too.” Paige added that she would like to see Belair in the ring against Naomi, and Young suggested a match with Asuka.
Nikki Cross would want to wrestle a tag match on a second Evolution show, and she’d want to partner with Alexa Bliss, who she said has helped her with the “psychology and storytelling” or wrestling. Her “two dreams” for them would be a match against the Bellas or against Lita and Trish Stratus.
You can watch all the WWE Backstage Evolution commentary on YouTube here.